Rom. i. 24) "in eanctillcntion nnrl honour" (" whose god is their l,olly, and their glory (comp. 1 Oor. vi. 13-20 for the o.postle'e in their shame") contai11e the snme oppo. teaching respecting the dignity of the eition of "hononr" to "fleshly indulgence" human body; olso Phil. iii. 19-21). The ns that supposed here, possibly suggested contempt of Alexandrine thcoeophists for by the phrase, "surfeiting of dishonour'' physical nuture woe fatnl to morality, under- ('11'"-'l<rµov¾ lt-r,µfas), of the LXX in Hab. mining the !JBeie on which rests tho govern- ii. 16. Here, then, the apostle lays hold ment of the body ns the "vessel" ond of the root-principle of the false teachers' vesture of tho epirituol life. Their principles whole scheme of morality, its hostilily to the took effect, first, in o morbid and unnatural body as a material crrganism. Such a treo.t- neceticism ; then, by a sure reaction, and ment, he declares, dishonours the body, with equal collBiatency, in unrestrained while it fails, and for this very reason, to and shocking licence. See, for the !at ter prevent that feeding of the flesh, the foster- result, the Epistles to the seven Churches ing of sensual appetency and habit, in of Asia (Rev. ii. and iii.); in the Pastoral which lies our real peril and dishonour in Epistles, the two opposite effects are both regard to this vessel of our earthly life. signalized. The rendering "value" given Here we have a suitable slarting-point for by Lightfoot and tl10 Revisers seems to us tht> exhortations of the next chapter, where misleading; nµ¾ means " value" only in the apostle, in vers. 1--4, shows the tme the sense of "price," as in 1 Cor. vi. 20, pnth of deliverance from sensual sin, and and this surely is not their meaning. in vers. 5-7 sets forth the Christian n"-11<rµov¾, has been taken in a milder sense asceticism-" unsparing treatment" of the by the Greek commentators, Luther, and flesh indeed ! The line of teaching adopted others: "satisfaction" "(legitimate) grati- by the errorists may be illuslrated by fication." So the apostle is made to charge Philo's doctrine in his third book of the the false teachers with " not honouring the • Allegories of the Sacred Law,' § 22: body, so as to grant the flesh its due gratifi- "• God saw that Er was wicked ; ' for he cation." But this rendering confounds the knows that this leathern burden of ours, the "body" and the "flesh," here contrasted, body-for Er, being interpreted, is leathern and gives ""-1J<rµov¾ e. meaning without -is evil and always plotting against the lexical warrant (see Meyer an<l Lightfoot). soul; nnd it is ever under the power of And the sentiment it expresses errs on deo.th, indeed actually dead [comp. Rom. the anti-ascetic side, and comes into collision viii. 10]. Yet this all do not see, but only with Rom. xiii.14 and Gal. v.16. Il"-11<rµov11, God, and those he loves. For when the in the LXX and in Philo, as in earlier mind [voiir: comp. note, ver. 18] becomes Greek, denotes "physical repletion," and engaged in sublime contemplations and is is associated with drunkenness and sensual initiated into the mysteries of the Lord excess generally. Hence we cannot admit [note, eh. i. 26], it judges the body to be evil the interpretation of Meyer, Alford, Ellicott, and hostile;" again (' On the Change of who make the "flesh" here the sinful Names,'§ 4): "Pale and wasted, and reduced principle generally, and understand "sur- to skeletons as it were, a.re the men devoted feiting" figuratively, supposing the apostle to instruction, having transferred to the to mean that the ascetic rules in question, powers of tha soul their bodily vigour also, "while they dishonour the body, tend to so that they have become, as we might say, gratify the carnal mind." This gives an dissolved into a single form of beiog, that ideo true in itself, and ag:reeing with the of pure soul made bodilel!s by force of sense of "flesh" in vers. l l, 18, but out thought [Bu:wo(a.: see eh. i. 21, note]. In of place here, while it strains the meo.ning them the earthly is destroyed and over- of ""-'l<rµov/i (see Lightfoot's exhaustive whelmed, when reason [voiis: ver. 18], argument). The prepoaition wpbs does not pervading them wholly, bus set its choice help us, meaning" for" or "against," nccord- on being well-pleasing to God." Tho writer ing to its connection. We combine Light- has o.ttempted un elucidr1tion of this verse foot's interpretation of ,,,.pbs ""-1J<rµov¾,v ·dis in the Expositor, fint series, vol. xii pp. aa.p,cbs with Wordsworth's and Alford'e of 28:l-303, ob,r iv "'P.V -rwl, The saying of Phil. iii. 19
HOMILETICS. Vers. 1-7.-Sect 4. Tlie apostle's concern for the <Jolossian (Jhurc'A. Already the apostle has breathed ont his "hcnrt's desire and prayer to God" for thcso Colossi::ms (eh. i. !J-12), "unknown by face" to him (vers. 1, 6), ,md yet so dear b~cause of their faith and love (oh. i. 4, 8; ii. G, 11-13; iii. 1-3, !J, 10, 15), and the loyalty they b&ve hitherto maintained (ver. 6), and the objects of so much anxiety on nccount of 11 DS THE EPISTLE 'l'O 'l'HE COLOSSIANS. [cu. 11. 1-23.